Delay Is The Enemy Of Growth

Delaying is not your friend putting something off because you don't have time. Or you don't have the funding or it's not in the budget or whatever it is, it's actually the enemy of your growth. You need to ruthlessly eliminate and hack away at any delays because here's why. If you want fear to get. If you wanna know how to grow fear, how does fear grow? What is the environment that fear grows in? that this one fear becomes monstrous, is delay the fertilizer.

The thing that makes fear grow is putting it. You think that you're wise in waiting. You think that there's justification, there are reasons. Read, excuses why it's not the right time. And I was inspired recently by this proverb, and I'm gonna have to find it for you. In the scriptures it, it says the sled. Looks outside and says, oh no, I can't go outside today because there's a roaring lion out there, and I'm paraphrasing, right? But this hit me.

There is a connection between fear and laziness, procrastination. Laziness is I'm not going to do the thing that I know I need to do that I know is the right thing to do because I don't feel like it. That's laziness and laziness always comes with reasons. and the proverb is like, well, there's a lion out there. It's dangerous. There's perceived danger. If I pick up the phone and call this donor and ask them for money, they're going to be offended.

The people who think that way, the people who say those things, Are new to this because the people who have lots of reps picking up the phone and calling, they realize that it's totally survivable. It doesn't kill you, and I've actually never, never, and this is superlative, right? Using the word never, I have never heard of in my 13 years of major gifts person.

And coaching clients for the last four years, I have never had anyone tell me that they called a donor to ask them for more money, and they were offended. I've never heard of this. It's probably happened somewhere, maybe, but honestly, this is my full-time thing. I'm obsessed with fundraising and I've coached dozens and dozens. It's probably in the hundreds, honestly, of nonprofit CEOs, major gifts officers, development directors, heads of fundraising, and it's never happened.

So, and let's say it does, let's say you pick up the phone, you call them and they are offended. So what, that's one person. And whatever reaction they have is completely about them. It isn't about you. It has nothing to do with you. The fact that they're offended is a choice that they made. It's a choice we make to take things personally. Now, if you're calling somebody and you're treating them like an ATM, and it's completely transactional, Then maybe that's why they're offended.

Maybe they have reason to be, but if you're not doing that, if this is someone you actually know and they've given to you in the past, or they've indicated interest, they've indicated passion, even if it's by opening up an email and continuing to donate, there's indication there that they are part of the team. They're part of the mission, they're part of the. Then you have reason to pick up the phone and call them and ask them to give more.

And if they're offended by that I mean, then you should just be like, oh, great. I'm glad that I know this. This is someone who I no longer need to spend time or energy building a relationship with and move on with your life. It is your choice to take it person. And that's usually what stops us from taking immediate action that we are afraid to do, is we make it about us. We take things personally, and that is a choice. If a donor says no to you, to your ask. That isn't personal.

It isn't about you. There are so many reasons why they might say no, and it's usually a not right now. It's not even a no and you delaying taking action is the exact fuel that fear needs to grow. When you delay taking action, you know you are supposed to do.

Strengthens the muscle of procrastination inside of you, meaning the next time that you're afraid you're gonna be more likely to put it off again because you're starting to train your brain to do this, to behave this way with fear, and you get caught in this procrastination, fear, laziness. And it's, it's not your fault because we, we are trained to do this. We're trained to make people comfortable.

We are trained to acquiesce and, and to, especially if someone is a person, that we perceive them to be a person of power and influence and money and wealth and prestige and high profile celebrity success. We are trained. Especially if you're a woman, especially if you're a woman of color, especially if you are an immigrant to the US you are trained to make those people comfortable and talking about money. I mean, for sure we don't do that, right? So I understand why we react this.

And I'm not saying it's your fault that you react this way, but I am saying it's your responsibility to learn another way. There is a better way you can relate to fear in a different way, and that's what I teach inside my program. Courage Lab. If you constantly are talking yourself out of taking immediate action and you tell yourself, eh, it's not the right. For whatever reason, it's the economy. You haven't spoken to this donor in six months. You haven't done a good enough job of stewardship.

You need to do more stewardship. They need to come to another event first. They, uh, whatever reason, last time you asked them, which was a year ago, they said no. I mean, we have all of these reasons. Your budget isn't big enough, and once you achieve more and help more people, then you can go to them. Once you get featured in Forbes, an entrepreneur and your nonprofit of the year, then you can go to them.

Once you get your masters, once you get a certification, once you blah, blah, blah, this is all delay. None of this actually matters in raising more money. None of. And if you know that you are the kind of person who talks yourself out of doing the very thing that is going to raise more money, because you don't want to do it wrong. You don't wanna screw it up, so you're not willing to do it at all. My program Courage Lab is for you. You will learn how the. Right.

So it is true that you might need skills. You might need to know, how do I talk to someone about giving a $10,000 gift, unrestricted dollars? You might need to learn how to do that. How do you have a conversation with a wealthy person and still be yourself? You might need to learn how to do that. That's what I teach inside Courage Lab. I teach you how to be.

And talk to rich people about money and ask them for more step into greater courage without feeling like a jerk, without feeling like you're just out for their money and without abandoning yourself that you can be authentic. You can be you. It is absolutely possible. It happens every single time that I run this program. It is a cohort-based program, so you. Individualized coaching from me one to one, and it's in a group, so you get to learn when I coach others as well.

You've gotta learn how to take action. That is how you kill dread. If you are dreading something, when you delay it, you are just feeding the dread monster. It just gets bigger. It feels scarier. The dread continues to grow with more time that you give. Time is not your friend. You do not need more time. You need to make decisions. You need to commit, and you need to take action. Immediate action. You need to learn to change your relationship with fear.

That fear is a signal that you're about to grow. Fear is the signal that you are about to grow. It does not mean stop. It does not mean delay. It does not mean procrastinate. It does not mean take a break. You get to take a break after you take courageous action. Make a decision. I'm gonna call the stoner. I'm gonna do it by this date. I'm gonna ask them for this much. Do it now. Do it now. Delay is not your friend.

Your fear will only grow and then you will begin to train your brain that when you're afraid you wait. You can break that habit right now. You can choose to change your relationship with. And the reason we don't do what we know we are supposed to do is because we've built the wrong habits. Habits are something you have control over and you can change. That's what my program Courage Lab is all about.

How can you interrupt the habits of letting fear be in the driver's seat and procrastinating the things that you know you're meant to. And instead build the habit of when you are afraid. You pick up the phone and you make the call and you get the money, and you build the confidence because you did what you said you were going to do. You kept a promise to yourself. You stayed in integrity by doing what you said you were gonna do, even when you were afraid.

When you learn these habits, You raise a lot more money, a hell of a lot faster, and you overcome any sense of imposter syndrome and you learn new habits. When I'm afraid I take action and I kill dread, I stop it in its tracks and I nip fear in the bud and I realize that fear doesn't have control. And the final say. In what I'm doing, I have the final say. I have agency. I can endure discomfort. I can endure rejection. I can endure feeling awkward. I can endure when I trip over my words.

When you decide to commit and take action, so many things change for you. My clients that just finished Courage Lab, Pick up the phone and got a board member to give $40,000. And not only that, but start reaching out to their friends and asking for referrals, asking them to give, and this person had been on the board for three years and did almost nothing for this ceo. And she shows up to the, coaching call and is like, yeah, I just, you know, I did what you said.

I followed your, strategy, and I got this board member to actually step up for the first time in three years, and they're gonna give 40 K of their personal money. When you learn to take action, even when you're afraid and you're not sure if it's gonna go, You build so much confidence, you raise more money, you become unstoppable, and you grow your impact. You actually help more people. You fulfill what you said you were setting out to do.

If your mission is to bring clean water to more people, to hundreds of thousands and millions of people, You cannot afford to delay taking bold action that is going to raise money. And ultimately, if you delay, It's not just you who suffers. The lack of confidence, the lack of trust in yourself, feeling like a failure, constantly being stressed out, how you're gonna make ends meet, where's the money gonna come from? I mean, it's an endless cycle.

It's not just you who suffers in that, it's your c. You delay getting them the help they need. When would be a good time to prioritize learning how to take bold action? This is what is keeping us from growth. You don't need to learn anymore. You don't need to get another certification. You don't need to get another degree. You don't need to get all your ducks in a row. You need to pick up the phone and call somebody and ask them for.

That's what you need to do, and if you don't know how to do that and you refuse to get it wrong, then I need you to get inside Courage Lab. It is set up to help you get your first $10,000 in week one because you need a win. You need a quick win. You need to see that you are capable of doing. If that's for you, if you're interested in joining my program, you can get on the wait list at julie ordon.com/waitlist, julie ordon.com/waitlist. I want you to sign up for the Courage Lab wait list.

Our next cohort is September, 2023. I'm already having people sign up for it on the wait list. The, the cohort is already filling. So if you know that you need to get really good at raising 10 K, 20 K, 40 K gifts, unrestricted dollars from donors that you already have, they're giving you 2000, $5,000, a thousand dollars, and you know they could give so much more. Courage Lab is for you if you talk yourself out of taking immediate. I designed this program for you. I know that it takes courage.

That's why I created Courage Lab. Don't delay. Delaying is not your friend. Delaying is the enemy of growth. Take action now and change your relationship with fear. Let it signal to. I am on the edge of growth. I am about to grow stepping into this uncomfortable space, doing something I've never done before, and it's going to get me to the other side. To greater impact. To greater influence, and to becoming the badass fundraiser. I know you really are. Until next time.